Thousands of years ago the historical period of antiquated Ancient Greece is one of a kind in world history. The Greek civilization has lasted from about 2,000 B.C to 200 B.C and during that time period, many Ancient Greeks works are still used today in many different areas. Many different areas that the modern world has reflected such as philosophy. This area flourished the modern world and profound much influence on the world today.
The Ancient Greek’s philosophy has influenced the world in many ways. Philosophy is the use of reason and argument in finding the truth and knowledge of reality. The first people to explore the idea of “Philosophy” was the Greeks, such famous philosophers were Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Each of these philosophers had many different ways and truth and reason which had many impacts on the modern world. Aristotle was highly regarded as a philosopher and was the father of “logic and reasoning”. Moreover, he was the first person to define and classify knowledge into branches. Socrates was one of the most powerful thinkers in the world he encouraged examination of question and answer and this method of his teaching was known as the “Socratic Method”. Plato was a student of Socrates who created a school called the Academy, Plato had written a famous work known as the “Republic” it was known and describes ideal society on fairness and justice.
These philosophers influenced not just the western civilization but had played a major contribution to civilization as a whole. Socrates (469-399 B.C) is known to be one of the founding fathers of the Western Civilization. Born in 470 B.C, Athens Greece. Starting as a stones man, the true calling was philosophy. Socrates’ philosophy was never written down, but his student Plato proceeded his teachings, in which we learned all of Socrates’ famous works. One exceptionally popular wonder we gain from Socrates will be the most influential teachings was known as the Socrates’ Socratic Method. This encouraged people to pursue knowledge by thinking in depth and asking questions. Socrates believed that the absolute truth existed, and all real knowledge was within each person. All it would take was to get knowledge, which was a series of questions. He asked pointed questions, forcing his students to use their reason and logic to discover things for themselves.
The Socratic method was looked at by leaders and many people as a threat challenging their leader’s powers. Citizens of Athens started to question everything. At one time, Athens had a convention of addressing leaders and talking openly. Be that as it may, when Athens lost to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, Athenian leaders changed their reasoning. They never again confided in open discussion. In 399 B.C. the leaders blamed Socrates for showing youthful Athenians to oppose the city-state. A jury discovered Socrates liable and condemned him to death. Socrates could have fled the city, yet he remained. He contended that he had lived under the city's laws, so he needed to obey them. He at that point drank poison produced using the hemlock plant to do the jury's sentence.
Believing that absolute truth existed and that all real knowledge was within each person. The Socratic method challenged many minds, with the use of much reasoning, logic and critical thinking. The method of critical thinking was finding an opening and patching it up with many reasons and logic. “This method of examining an argument by rational discussion from a position of ignorance marked a complete change in philosophical thinking. It was the first known use of inductive argument, in which a set of premises based on experience is first established to be true, and then shown to lead to a universal truth in conclusion.” Stated in “The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained” By William Buckingham “DK”. Socrates’ method not only became the foundation of the western civilization but of all observed sciences throughout history.
One of Socrates' understudies was a man named Plato (427-347 B.C). In contrast to Socrates, Plato deserted numerous works. One work is known as the Republic. It clarifies Plato's considerations about the perfect government. In view of life in Athens, Plato chose that majority rule government was not a decent arrangement of government. He didn't imagine that standard by the common individuals created reasonable and sensible approaches. As Plato would like to think, individuals couldn't live great lives except if they had a fair and sensible government. He thought a vote-based system prompted much confusion, chaos, and disorder. For Plato’s’ confirmation he indicated the popular democracy in Athens who had condemned his teacher, Socrates to death.
The ideal society according to Plato, in his written work the “Republic”. He described his ideal government, he partitioned individuals into three essential groups. At the top were the philosopher-kings known and presided wisdom and logical thinking. Warriors were in the second group. They defended the state from attack from many threats. The third group included the rest of the people, as in society. They were driven by aspiration, not by sense like the first group or strength and bravery like the second. This third gathering delivered the state's clothing apparel, food, and shelters. Plato likewise trusted that people to have a similar schooling and an equivalent opportunity to have similar occupations. Plato argued in his work the “Republic” that it is a Philosopher who should be the ruling class. According to the “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett
“When the truth is that the city in which those, who are to rule are least eager to hold office must need best administered and most free from dissension, in the state that gets contrary type of ruler will be opposite of this”
However, this is because only a true philosopher can comprehend the exact nature of the world and the truth of moral values. A detained prisoner in the "Allegory of the Cave" who sees the genuine questions as opposed to their shadows, many will simply turn back to the main world they feel that they only know. Plato regularly thought that it was hard to persuade his other Philosophers of the genuine idea of their calling of wisdom and logic. Later on, Plato established a school in Athens known as the Academy.
One of Plato’s’ best students was Aristotle (384-322 B.C). Over his life, Aristotle has written in excess of 200 books on points running from government to the stars, planets, and universe. In 335 B.C. Aristotle opened his own school called the Lyceum. At the Lyceum Aristotle showed his understudies the "brilliant mean." According to this thought, a person should do nothing to overabundance. Aristotle also propelled in the field of science. He asked individuals to use their knowledgable senses to make observations, similarly as researchers today mention objective facts. Aristotle was the primary person to assemble perceptions as indicated by their similarities and contrasts. At that point, he made conclusions depending on the gathering of facts and data. Referring back to the book “The Philosophy Big Ideas”
What Aristotle proposed turned Plato’s theory on its head. Far from mistrusting our senses, Aristotle relied on them for the evidence to back up his theories. What he learnt from studying the natural world was that by observing the characteristics of every example of a particular plant or animal that he came across, he could build up a complete picture of what it was that distinguished it from other plants or animals, and deduce what makes it what it is
His own studies of facts and data confirmed already what he believed. Referring that “Aristotle’s classification of living things is the first detailed examination of the natural world. It proceeds from general observations about the characteristics, and then subdivides into ever more precise categories”. Besides Plato, Aristotle also written some works on governmental democracy, he compared the government to many different places to find the best type fitted form of government that would suit and properly fit society. His contemporary and distinctive style according to his book “Politics”, Aristotle divided the governments into three types. According to the book “Aristotle’s Politics “Second Edition” translated by Carnes Lord, it states that “Some people think that the qualifications of a statesman, king, householder, and master are the same and that they differ, not in kind, but only in the number of their subjects.” Aristotle divided the governments into three types
“Government by one person such as a monarch or a tyrant.”
“Government by a few people, which might be an aristocracy or an oligarchy”
“Government by many people like in a democracy”
He thought the best properly fit government would be an aristocracy or a monarchy. Consequently, Aristotle thought the most secure government was a blend of aristocracy and democracy and that the majority rule government that may be controlled by a working class.
Aristotle’s ideas represented the influence of other Ancient Greek philosophers.
No matter how advanced or more knowledgeable we are compared to decades ago to ancient civilizations, we cannot deny or say that what they contributed did not affect us directly in many different ways. One of the major contributors to modern knowledge was the Greeks. These developed works of knowledge of the philosophies and beliefs to be extraneous to today's society, Socrates', Plato's, and Aristotle's philosophies changed the way people think and greatly affected the development of many civilizations and even our own.